Herbicide (2-4-d) Damage

[JamesL]

There have been a few threads discussing herbicide so far this spring.
I hold my breath every May hoping no, not me. Alas......
"Serenity now!" - Frank Costanza

Absolutely hammered this year. It was really windy here at the end of last week. Just about everything is affected with varying degrees of severity.
Have a few replacements still waiting in the wings, planning on pruning the affected growth / grow tips on Saturday and hope they recover.







Sunflowers were not exempt....

[Starlight]

How terrible!!!!!!!! I think if I walked out and saw that I would sit right down and cry.

Do you know who caused it. Is there anyway of bringing that person over and showing them just what their drift did to your crops? Maybe if they saw some real damage they would stop using it.

Such a shame.

[dfollett]

Sorry to hear, James. Hope they recover. Lawn care companies, neighbors spraying or municipalities killing weeds along the roads?

The older I get, the more fools I think are out there. (My neighbors probably say that about me and all the tomatoes I try to give them.)

[AlittleSalt]

Sorry this has happened James. I'm glad you have backups, but... expletive.

[b54red]

Those first two pics look like the damage is not too severe and they will probably recover. I wouldn't cut off the affected growth unless it is severely damaged. It usually takes a couple of weeks for it to return to looking normal if it does. That third picture shows more severe affects and probably won't recover.

I had almost every tomato in my garden hit one year and all but a few recovered and did great. I had some very young plants on my hardening off table that were more severely affected and only a few of them recovered.

Good luck.

Bill

[JamesL]

Thanks gang!
I soaked them out once and will do it again tomorrow morning as lots of water can help.

No way of course to tell where it came from as any Manny, Moe or Jack can buy 2-4-d or Roundup at Home Depot and on a windy day it can really travel.

Bill,
I might just heed that and give them a little time before chop chop.
Even with a pruning, as long as they live they should still produce - it just means a delayed season and probably less production.

[Captain Neon]

My father is a believer in fine mist to apply herbicides and he gets lots of drift. I have used a hose end sprayer (almost a foamer) for years and have never had problems with drift effecting my tomatoes even spraying right next to the border of my garden. I had a horrible problem with Creeping Charlie in Missouri and was treating with a different broadleaf herbicide over four times each month from early March to late November. Hit Charlie with a herbicide and then hit him again 5 days later. Give the grass a one week break and then hit Charlie with something else and then again 5 days later. If it killed broadleaves, I used it in my application cycle, and I never had any problems with my tomatoes. Rather than trying to convince neighbours not to treat their yards against weeds, you may want to encourage them to try a different application method.

[mashermike]

I had this happen several years ago from adding composted manure from a local beef farm. The pastures were treated with Grazon. I called the county extension agent when all my tomatoes starting dying. He said it looked like 2-4-D and the residual could last up to 7 years. He advised me to move my garden, which I did.

Mike

[aclum]

Hi James,

I'm so sorry to hear of your herbicide damage!! I feel your pain . Hope you can save most, if maybe not all, of your plants. (Always nice to have those beautiful back ups, though ).

Anne

[JamesL]

Captain N - Every "mow and blow" crew is spraying something. I see 10 different ones is the area every week. No one follows spraying protocols and this is suburbia.

Mashermike, that is a bummer. Yes it is designed to go right though animal digestive tracts so it doesn't "hurt" them. Lol. Untrustworthy manure needs to be pot tested and hot composted at least 2 seasons to be really sure.

Anne, Thanks! Glad to see you are having a decent season so far. I remember your problematic season last year.

It's about to get worse for all of us. There are new versions of dicamba resistant soy and cotton out. And this lovely product is waiting in the wings for approval.
"Roundup® Xtend herbicide will be a premix of the herbicides dicamba and glyphosate designed to manage weeds before planting and as an over-the-top option on Roundup Ready® 2 Xtend crops during the season."
Dicamba has a similar mode of action to 2-4-d.
Once approved a big box store version will follow as why shouldn't everyone have the benefit of such a wonderful product.

What dfollett wrote earlier is really on the mark "The older I get, the more fools I think are out there."

[peebee]

Only when it happens to you do you fully understand the disbelief, horror, anger and then the sickening feeling in your gut as you stand there staring at your affected plants. You feel betrayed, and start wondering who did it. Of course, the culprit most likely than not is totally unaware of the consequences. About 2 years ago it happened to me and thankfully only a few tomatoes were damaged. James, I hope your plants recover!

When I was manually removing my front lawn a while back, I had to reluctantly use Roundup to get rid of crabgrass that I could not reach under the sidewalk. Instead of spraying, I used a cardboard box that I cut the bottom off of, as a shield, and reached in with a paintbrush and brushed the grass with the herbicide. I got curious stares and several people did ask me what I was doing "painting" the grass inside this box. But when I explained that I did not want any drift to damage the surrounding plants, they were appreciative and did not realize any of this. Non-gardeners are ignorant, folks, and we have to educate them!

[tnkrer]

Sorry to hear that James. Like you, I also keep waiting and hoping that I wont get hit by herbicide drift and every year I get hit. Today was the day for me . I do not have any spares left. Gave out all of my extras by now. So these guys have to fight and survive.

When the plants are in the ground/planter for couple of weeks, they seem to survive it. (This year I suspect that some of my starts got hit and did not recover)





Let us know if your plants are improving ..

[Kikaida]

Oh man, that blows...I'd call my local department of agriculture if I saw any yahoos spraying irresponsibly. Take down license plate numbers and photos of the offenders, nothing like a fat fine from the city. I hope you recover from this.

[greenthumbomaha]

I'm in the club to about every year. I came home about a month ago to see the little flag on my neighbor's lawn. Some are trying to recover, others getting worse. Its been very cool so growth started and then slowed. I have SMALL replacements that are healthy, but its a trade off for plants already producing. Just another unpredictable factor for the season.

- Lisa

[TightenUp]

Sorry james

Got hit hard last year. Replaced garden 4th of july weekend and it never caught up.

Memorial Day wknd used to be my fathers plant out date so you should be ok if you replace now, asap.